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That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

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Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#141

Post by afpx »

Aachen wrote: post #127
ventana wrote: post #81

Just don't ask brain teasers when you conduct an interview; I believe they give no valid signal at all, and I also believe Microsoft does not ask them anymore. The coding questions that require an "aha!" moment are very similar to brain teasers, and should also be avoided. When I conducted interviews for FAANG, I asked somewhat simpler coding questions, something around DFS and/or topological sorting (without calling…

> something around DFS and/or topological sorting (without calling it by name, of course), because those are thing which you might actually need to implement at work: people sometimes traverse JSONs, and people sometimes resolve dependencies. No one has ever told me "oh, I know this problem, it's DFS", because surely I know they know it. Well, I've been coding for 15 years (of course walking through data structures,…

I understand where you're coming from and can empathize because I've been asked some absurd computer science questions in interviews.

However, in my experience, if an interviewer can't confirm basic knowledge of data structures and algorithms, then some lead ends up having to teach computer science to explain to a developer why their code with 5 nested loops is probably not a good idea.

Having been that lead who has had to stay up all night trying to debug some difficult to reproduce deadlock or race condition ... I would prefer that companies spend resources on training rather than spending $5k to interview a candidate

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#142

Post by voidfunc »

pjmlp wrote: post #132
modeless wrote: post #65

Once long ago when I interviewed at Apple I was asked the classic "fork in the road, two guys, one always tells the truth and one always lies" riddle, with complete earnestness as far as I could tell. Possibly the single worst interview question I've ever been asked. Of course I told the interviewer I'd heard it before and then gave the correct answer. In my case we just ended up chatting about previous experience in…

Here a few additional teasers, - How many golf balls fit into the plane - How many gas stations exist in country (or alternative version with city ) - How many turns do you have to go on a gum machine until colour comes out? Naturally they all evaluate properly the skills required for the job, and other professions get asked the same kind of stupid questions. Unless it is for a position I really, really want, or are…

Its funny how some people react to these?

I suspect you see them as time wasters which is why you end the interview. I see them as ice-breakers and rather enjoy them because they are fun to talk through.

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#143

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

anonym29 wrote: post #124
RealityVoid wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The water level decreases, along with the shore and anything with it falling within the event horizon. Any other apocalyptic brain teasers?

You drop a bowling ball off a space boat into a black hole. Has the amount of mass inside the universe increased, decreased, or stayed the same, ignoring the effects of all other changes?

You drop a black hole the size of a bowling ball into a frontier AI startup.

At what point does NVIDIA give you $200bn?

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#144

Post by pjmlp »

voidfunc wrote: post #142
pjmlp wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here a few additional teasers, - How many golf balls fit into the plane - How many gas stations exist in country (or alternative version with city ) - How many turns do you have to go on a gum machine until colour comes out? Naturally they all evaluate properly the skills required for the job, and other professions get asked the same kind of stupid questions. Unless it is for a position I really, really want, or are…

Its funny how some people react to these? I suspect you see them as time wasters which is why you end the interview. I see them as ice-breakers and rather enjoy them because they are fun to talk through.

I am on my 50's now, if I have to prove that I am worthwhile being an employee with such teasers instead of what I have done thus far, I rather spend my time elsewhere, unless I am desperate for getting the position.

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#145

Post by jameshart »

tyre wrote: post #31
jameshart wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was an internship interview over a decade ago. Nothing wrong with a brain teaser interview question under those circumstances. What would you rather ask an internship candidate? They don’t have work experience or real world skills.

I was interviewing interns before this, starting in 2013 or so. There are plenty of more useful questions you can ask. Tell me about a project you’ve worked on, then many follow ups, for example. Asking about group project dynamics or something they’re passionate about and involved with. Ask why they’re applying for this role, ask about difficult conversations or things they’re proud of. Ask about decisions they woul…

The answers to this questions will tell you whether the candidate is a good storyteller, whether they have been lucky or unlucky in group project assignments, and whether they can spin experiences as self promotion.

Those are broadly interesting behavioral signals but very subjective, and possibly less relevant than ‘do they enjoy figuring out puzzles that they don’t really understand the significance or relevance of?’

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#146

Post by FartyMcFarter »

pjmlp wrote: post #133
FartyMcFarter wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As a candidate myself I always mention if I have seen similar problems, such as finding primes - real example, and I was hired on that loop at Microsoft! Normally I'm completely in favour of being honest about this (and would almost certainly do it myself), but in the case of something as common as "finding primes" I'd think it's OK to just do it. Does any interviewer really expect that the majority of candidates h…

How many devs above 40 do you think still do leetcode to keep themselves entertained, especially if their daily work is doing CRUD stuff between corporate meetings?

We're specifically talking about people who are interviewing for jobs - I'd expect a lot of them to have done leetcode before the interviews.

Also: when we think about whether we've seen a problem or not before (in order to be honest during an interview), presumably this includes all problems we have a significant memory of, not just problems we've seen recently.

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#147

Post by paulluuk »

ventana wrote: post #81

Just don't ask brain teasers when you conduct an interview; I believe they give no valid signal at all, and I also believe Microsoft does not ask them anymore. The coding questions that require an "aha!" moment are very similar to brain teasers, and should also be avoided. When I conducted interviews for FAANG, I asked somewhat simpler coding questions, something around DFS and/or topological sorting (without calling…

I had an interview with Google about 10 years ago. Everyone said "Google doesn't ask brainteasers or leetcode-challenges any more".

The interview was literally nothing but back-to-back brainteasers and leetcode-challenges for 3 hours straight.

I didn't get the job even though I only failed to solve one problem, and looking back I think that the problem was in fact unsolvable and they wanted me to come to that conclusion rather than admit that I couldn't solve it in my head.

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#148

Post by paulcole »

JSR_FDED wrote: post #101

A friend told me about his AWS interview experience. It was a case study describing a potential client, their needs, limitations, etc - trying to be “realistic”. In the end it came down to either pressuring the client to embark on a complex cloud transition in time for a major sports event (that was a make or break event for the customer) or, as my friend recommended, start with a PoC but do the risky transition afte…

> He didn’t get the job because even though the technical attributes were all good, he should have pressured the customer.

1) Is this word for word what they told him?

2) If so, why did he believe them?

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#149

Post by ninkendo »

AlecBG wrote: post #86
lostlogin wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no idea and want the answers: Boat + bowling ball = level stays the same? Ball roll = the constant gradient is quickest?

First one water is lower. Ball is more dense than water, in boat displaces its weight in water, in water displaces it's volume Dip for hill roll is faster

First one depends on the bowling ball. Most alleys have balls ranging from 7lb to 16lb, all the same volume, and the crossover point where they’d sink is 11.6lb.

If it was a floating bowling ball, the lake water level would stay the same when you toss it from a boat. If it were a sinking one, it would decrease.

Re: That time when I failed the Microsoft interview

#150

Post by paulcole »

pjmlp wrote: post #132
modeless wrote: post #65

Once long ago when I interviewed at Apple I was asked the classic "fork in the road, two guys, one always tells the truth and one always lies" riddle, with complete earnestness as far as I could tell. Possibly the single worst interview question I've ever been asked. Of course I told the interviewer I'd heard it before and then gave the correct answer. In my case we just ended up chatting about previous experience in…

Here a few additional teasers, - How many golf balls fit into the plane - How many gas stations exist in country (or alternative version with city ) - How many turns do you have to go on a gum machine until colour comes out? Naturally they all evaluate properly the skills required for the job, and other professions get asked the same kind of stupid questions. Unless it is for a position I really, really want, or are…

I think those questions are good ways to assess open mindedness, estimation, and verbal communication skills.

There are other ways to assess those skills, sure. But questions like that aren’t bad ways.

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